Syrup
by monkeybait
Summary: Should Shikamaru give in to Ino's bizarre demands?


**It's only Monday.**

"Whatcha doing, Shikamaru?" Ino asked curiously, twirling a stray strand of blonde hair around one finger.

Shikamaru was sitting at his kitchen table. He raised an eyebrow as Ino entered. "Drinking tea. What does it look like I'm doing?"

"Ha! That just goes to show how _boring_ you are!" Ino laughed obnoxiously at Shikamaru's expense.

"Uh," he began, "drinking tea makes me boring?"

"_Anyone_ can drink _tea_ in an anime," Ino explained with a meaningful eye-roll. "Why not drink something that no one ever drinks in animes?"

"Like?" Shikamaru asked.

"I dunno. How about… syrup?" she suggested.

Shikamaru blinked. "Drink syrup? Are you serious? That's just disgusting."

"But syrup is sooo yummy!" Ino pulled out a glass bottle, Canada-imported, from behind her back. "All sticky and juicy and copper-colored… Come on, Shikamaru! Don't you wanna be a cooler guy?"

"Drinking syrup will not make me cooler!" the overly-smart ninja boy snarled. "You're the only one who thinks that!"

"I'm glad you said that, Shikamaru! Let's invite in guest number two!" Ino pointed to Shikamaru's kitchen entrance, where Hinata scurried in, looking horribly timid and poking her fingers together, but what else is new.

"Hinata? What are you doing in my house?"

Instead of responding, she rolled up her sleeve and immediately cut the chase. "I think that maple syrup makes any ninja way cooler and much more awesome," Hinata read off the inside of her arm stiffly, "if you were to drink it, I would just… just d-d…d… Ino, this is embarrassing"!

"Oh, just read it, Hyuuga!"

"Date-you-in-a-heartbeat," Hinata finished quickly, blushing profusely. She swayed on the spot uncomfortably for five seconds, then turned and left to go home.

Ino skipped up to her teammate. "Now! What did you think of that?"

"Convincing," said Shikamaru sarcastically.

"Come on! You have to drink it after that performance! By which I mean convincing argument!" Ino pleaded. "Please, please, please, please, please?"

"I don't see why you're so adamant about this…" Shikamaru swirled the contents in the bottle, scrutinizing.

"Please," she repeated, hands clasped together under her chin.

Shikamaru halted abruptly. "It's poisoned isn't it?!"

"No it isn't! Now stop being a picky baby and drink it-"

"Get that away from me! Agh, you're spilling it all over the table-"

"I wouldn't have if you'd just drink it-"

"Gack-! Mom! Ino's trying to suffocate me with Canadian waffle gravy!"

"Oh, way to the play the Mom card, some ninja you are!"

"Waagh!"

Suddenly, Ino and Shikamaru fell over. But it was not in such a way that everything became incredibly awkward and turned into a shipping. More in a way that implied Shikamaru should drink the syrup immediately.

Ino grabbed the bottle and handed it to him, glaring. "I swear I'll leave you alone if you just take one sip."

"Fine!" Shikamaru snatched the syrup from her and chugged. Nothing about it tasted strange. Then suddenly Ino gave a whoop of joy.

"Ha! Yes! I did it!" she shouted, pumping her fists in the air.

"What did you do? What did you do?! Am I going to die?! Mom! Ino tried to kill me-"

"Relax, idiot, you're not poisoned," Choji smirked, suddenly walking in. "Guess I lose, though."

"Lose…?" Shikamaru looked between them, baffled.

"Yeah, I bet Choji seventy-four yen and a box of vitamin gummy bears that you'd drink syrup," Ino grinned shamelessly.

"And I said you wouldn't. Thanks a lot, man," Choji muttered, handing the winnings over to the piggishly named ninja.

"Hey, let's go see if we can get Hinata to eat snails now!" Ino enthused.

"Oh. I vote yes, with enough persuading."

"Aw, I was gonna say yes too. Let's try feeding her meal worms instead."

"I still vote yes."

Ino and Choji ran away, those horrible gambling children. Meanwhile, Shikamaru felt bad about being used and drank the rest of the syrup.

**Poor Shikamaru and Hinata. But especially Hinata. She gets so much abuse.**

**R&R! STUV!**

**Oh yeah, and Ino stole the Canadian syrup from Rock Lee. Oh noes, I made a reference, someone stab me with a seven-pronged fork.**


End file.
